OpenAI pitches 5% government stake to ease Washington pressure

OpenAI has proposed granting the United States government a 5% equity stake worth approximately $42.6 billion as the artificial intelligence company seeks to ease mounting political pressure in Washington, the Financial Times reported Thursday. The potential holding would represent a significant public interest in the firm, which closed a record funding round in March at a post-money valuation of $852 billion. Chief Executive Sam Altman argued that giving the government a financial interest would be the best way to share the upside of artificial intelligence with the public, according to the report.

Sovereign wealth fund model

Altman suggested the 5% stake in early discussions with the Trump administration as part of a broader arrangement under which Washington would hold equivalent positions in leading US AI developers through a government vehicle, the FT reported. The proposed structure could also include other major artificial intelligence companies such as Anthropic, Google and Meta ceding similar stakes to the government through a sovereign wealth fund-style vehicle. It remains unclear whether those companies would agree to such a proposal.

Export controls and Chinese competition

The reported pitch comes as pressure has been building on major US AI firms, with Washington increasingly concerned about cybersecurity vulnerabilities linked to advanced models and rising competition from Chinese open-source alternatives that are nearly as capable but significantly cheaper than American systems. Anthropic disabled access to its most advanced Mythos and Fable models last month to comply with a government export control directive, though the Claude developer said Tuesday it had been cleared to restore access after taking steps to resolve policymakers' safety concerns.

Trump administration precedent

OpenAI's proposal followed more than a year of talks about a possible government stake in the company, CNBC reported last month, noting that Altman first pitched the concept directly to the Trump administration in early 2025. The administration has previously taken stakes in private companies, including a 10% holding in Intel after an $8.9 billion investment in the chipmaker's common stock in August last year. President Donald Trump described the US taking ownership stakes in AI giants as "a beautiful thing" that would make Americans "partners in this revolution," adding in May that he should have asked for a larger stake in the chipmaker.